Saturday, June 29, 2013

A local NGO, Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka, has achieved a milestone by introducing a solar energy-run rickshaw here today.

The model, Surya, was kicked off on the fifth anniversary of Ecocab (a light-weight modern rickshaw) at the Non-Motor Research and Development Centre here.

Surya has been developed by NGO patron Dr Bhupinder Singh, a recipient of Uttarakhand Government's Urja Purush title. Kabir Sharma, a mechanical engineering student and an intern at the centre, assisted him in the project. The rickshaw generates 200-watt solar power through four photo voltaic panels, which also act as a roof for the 250-watt DC motor (fitted on the rickshaw). The rickshaw weight has been kept around 80 kg in order to reduce its cost as well as to provide comfort to the operator for pulling it in the absence of sunlight.

Friday, June 28, 2013

CHANDIGARH: Going strictly by statistics, Chandigarh residents consume more liquor than residents of Punjab and Haryana. But much of the liquor is smuggled out or bought by people of Punjab and Haryana owing to its cheaper rates here. Now, with back-to-back hikes in excise duty, the UT administration aims to rid itself of the dubious distinction.

A report on road safety quotes a study by a Sangrur-based organization, which analyzed drinking patterns of IMFL and country liquor among those above 18 years. The figures are sourced to the excise departments of the three states.

The average consumption of liquor is 135.8 bottles in Chandigarh, 22.2 bottles in Haryana and 11.5 bottles in Punjab with 2010 as the base year. The study conducted by the UT police to chalk out policies on road safety highlights the need for sustained drives against drunken driving.

"It was very intriguing to find such high sales of liquor in Chandigarh, which has a total population of 10.50 lakh. But a clear picture emerges when the scenario is linked to Punjab and Haryana, where liquor sales are affected by the much cheaper rates in UT. However, with the recent 30% hike in liquor prices, things might have already begun to change," said Navdeep Asija, who conducted the study.

Those having android application on their phones can avail the service. The application can be used for adding details of rickshaw puller as well as for searching one near your location. The numbers are available on the ecocab website.

After some time, users will be able to use the service through SMS notification. 'Around 20 sectors have already been covered and 60 to 70 rickshaw pullers registered in the initial 20 days,' said a spokesperson of the eco-cab campaign.

'We hope to equip most of the sectors with 25 to 30 rickshaw pullers in the next six months. They are being trained collectively. We will rope in Chandigarh police for the verification process,' he added.

The concept of dial-a-rickshaw service is based on a similar model that is running successfully in Fazilka town of Punjab since five years. Fazilka has nine call centres, which are actually tea shops that run near rickshaw stands. Whenever a resident calls for a rickshaw there, the tea vendor informs the service provider standing first in queue. This not only helps increase the income of rickshaw pullers, but also saves fuel and the environment.

'In Chandigarh, we cannot adopt a similar model as it's a bigger city and people don't know each other. That is why we have gone for community-driven platform for references. In UT, the outdoor advertising rules are very strong and we have to shell out Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per rickshaw which is not financially viable,' the spokesperson added.

Monday, June 24, 2013

CHANDIGARH: It takes some divine intervention to make the city's roads a bit safer on Tuesday, with a fewer drunken people behind the wheel. This has come to the fore in a study got conducted by the UT traffic police on fatal accidents.

Where 19 to 21 accidents took place on other days of the week during 2012, the figure was 14 for Tuesday, which is attributed to abstinence for religious reasons by a large population.

Navdeep Asija, traffic management researcher, said a majority of liquor vend owners contacted during the study revealed that sale of liquor plunges on Tuesday. The objective of the study was to see if the sustained drive against drunken driving on weekends was having an effect, and strategize for the future. "The study is based on data collected from different sources and an analysis of traffic movement with focus on Tuesdays," he says.

Even after identifying killer spots in the city, the UT engineering and urban planning departments have been sitting on suggestions to streamline traffic movements.

A study, "Chandigarh Road Crash Analysis", shows 32.35% of those who lost lives in road accidents in 2012 were pedestrians. But where cyclists have higher likelihood to get killed at intersections, pedestrians seem to be more vulnerable mid-block due to missing footpaths and zebra crossings.

Cyclists have higher likelihood to get killed at intersections with 88% of them involved in fatal crashes. Similarly, slow moving traffic like cycle rickshaw and auto rickshaw are found more vulnerable at intersections. At most intersections on Madhya Marg, over 12,000 to 15,000 vehicles pass in one hour.

DIG Alok Kumar says the survey was a part of the plan of traffic police to crack down on drunken driving to prevent road accidents.

Monday, June 10, 2013

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is initiating development in Africa through various ways. One of those ways goes via Fazilka, the border city of Punjab.

The Fazilka connection is happening through Africa Lead, the three-year USAID programme. The purpose of Africa Lead is to support the capacity building programme of the 'Feed the Future (FTF)' Initiative of the US government.

To achieve this, Africa Lead is building a cadre of African agricultural specialists trained in all aspects in the development and commercialisation of the agricultural industry.

This is where Fazilka comes into the picture. Top-of-the-line resource persons from sub-Saharan nations like Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and more are being hand-picked for training at a farm solutions firm in Fazilka.

A team of Africa Lead came for training to Fazilka in December last year. The second team has just wrapped up its 20-day training.

The Africa Lead team leader David Tardif-Douglin, who is coordinating the Fazilka programme, highlighted that the agriculture industry in Africa is based on small holdings. "Farmers lack access to agricultural mechanisation to improve productivity and expand their production base," said David, stating that their story is similar to that of the Indian farmers.

The average African farms are small in size, and farmers lack sufficient resources to purchase the necessary agricultural equipment.

What caught the attention of USAID was the unique business model of Fazilka firm, which works as an all-needs agricultural equipment company.

It sells new equipment, provides maintenance and parts, leases equipment with trained operators, establishes satellite enterprise village centres, and also provides mechanised agricultural services on contract.

In addition, the firm runs a training centre on agronomic best practices, equipment use, their maintenance, and also farm economics. It links farmers to extension services and training capsules through video conferencing with university and research facilities.

David Tardif-Douglin noted that the Fazilka model of renting out a wide range of equipment to small farmers to meet any need is very applicable to Africa.

In the last few decades, Punjab farmers had been building up huge debts buying tractors and other farming equipment as a 'matter of prestige.'

Now, realisation is dawning even among Punjab farmers that the relatively short durations of the wheat and rice crop cycles make the purchase of agricultural equipment redundant.

Africa Lead is trying to replicate the same 'Sustainable Farm Mechanisation' model in Africa by training its resource persons here.

The Africa Lead group, which finished its training in Fazilka on Saturday, includes Nicholas Nabende from Uganda, Sam Rubagumya from Rwanda and Felix Temu from Tanzania.

The first group that came to Fazilka for training, included Gus Roberts from Liberia, Titus Gakwaya from Rwanda and Aaron Ngobi from Uganda.

CHANDIGARH: The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is initiating development in Africa through many ways. One of them goes via Fazilka, the border city of Punjab.

The Fazilka connection is happening through Africa Lead, the three-year USAID programme. The purpose of Africa Lead is to support capacity building programme of the "Feed the Future (FTF)" initiative of the US government.

To achieve this, Africa Lead is building a cadre of African farm specialists, trained in all aspects in the development and commercialisation of agricultural industry.

This is where Fazilka comes into picture. Top resource persons from sub-Saharan nations like Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and others are being handpicked for training at Zamindara Farm Solutions (ZFS), Fazilka. A team of Africa Lead had come for training to Fazilka in December last year, while a second team has just wrapped up its 20-day training.

What caught the attention of USAID was the unique business model of ZFS, which works as an all-needs agricultural equipment company. ZFS sells new equipment, provides maintenance and parts, leases equipment with trained operators, establishes satellite enterprise village centres and also provides mechanised agricultural services on contract.

Speaking about his Fazilka experience at a press conference here on Saturday, one of the Africa Lead resource persons, Felix Temu of Tanzania, said, "At Fazilka, I have found a great level of trust between farmers and the service provider, Zamindara Farm Solutions. The farmers are able to get machinery with ease, which has led to improved production, labour savings and timely cultivation."

Temu, whose firm Tractors Ltd deals in agriculture machinery, said that his endeavour would be to train farmers in his own country and change their mindset. "It is important for them to invest in land mechanisation through hiring. This pay-for-use model will prove highly beneficial for my country," he reasoned.

Another participant in the training programme, Nicholas Abenda, a banker from Uganda, said, "The rental/hire option is working very well as compared to debt/lease finance model. It saves farmers the interest costs. Owning machines is not mandatory. A major benefit of this pay-for-use model is the follow-up on the asset/machine in regard to spares, repairs, trouble shooting and GPS locations, to name a few. This facility is not provided by banks."

Abenda, who works at Stanbic Bank, said he wants to promote the hire option in Africa to help farmers save on bad loans that are a result of huge farmer debts. "I also want to structure future agriculture leases and finance, based on agriculture seasons and not monthly basis. The monthly pattern is common in our economy," he remarked.

Also present on the occasion was Rwanda's Sam Rubagumya, managing director of Sopar Agro Industries, who said, "I want to improve the level of affordable farm mechanisation in my country with the pay-for-use model, in order to target high yields."

Talking about imparting training to the African team, Vikram Ahuja, director of ZFS, said that such exposure will open up new business opportunities for Indian businesses in Africa. "African companies heavily buy agricultural equipment from Europe. China is emerging as a dominant player in the African market. Indian machines are equally good and reasonably priced. Such interactions will increase exposure of African countries to India, and help us find new areas of growth," he said.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

In its effort to deal with food shortages, especially in the African continent, the US Agency for International Development has begun replicating the Fazilka "affordable mechanisation through pay-for-use model" of developing libraries of agricultural implements, to deal with the peculiar issues of those countries.

The Fazilka connection has happened after the model which was developed by local commerce graduate from a farmers' family, Vikram Ahuja about six years ago, recently caught the attention of the USAID through the FICCI. The USAID, which has a three year "feed the future" programme in Sub-Saharan countries, has tied up with Mr Ahuja's Zimindara Farm Solutions (ZFS) to build a cadre of African agricultural specialists trained in different aspects of development, mechanisation and commercialisation of the agriculture.

Second team of the Africa Lead project that is being managed by the Development Alternatives Incorp (DAI) for the USAID, is currently in India to study Mr Ahuja's model. The ZFS, which has now operations in about 500 villages in western districts of Punjab, Haryana and northern Rajasthan, through its own call centres and network of franchisees, loans out agricultural machines and implements that may vary from different sizes of tractors to precision planters, reversible mouldboard ploughs, bailers or harvesters. This has contributed in reducing the cost of production, increasing the yield and augmenting farmers' incomes as well as curtailing indebtedness.

Mr Ahuja explains that ZFS works as all-needs agricultural equipment company that also provides maintenance and parts, leases equipment with trained operators, establishes satellite enterprise village centres, provides training on best agronomic practices, optimum equipment use and also farm economics. It also links farmers to extension services and training capsules through video-conferencing with university and research facilities.

Through a communication, the Chief of Party for Africa Lead, David Tardif-Douglin, who also co-ordinates the Fazilka program, the story of the African farmer is quite similar to his Indian counterparts as agriculture there too was based on small holdings. "Farmers lack access to agricultural mechanisation to improve productivity and expand their production base," he says highlighting lack sufficient resources to purchase the necessary agricultural equipment.

One the of members from the Africa Lead delegation, Felix Temu from Tanzania was of the opinion that the Fazilka model would go a long way to transform agriculture in about three dozen African countries, which have been striving to move away from subsistence farming to sustainable agriculture.

Similarly, Nicholas Nabende, who is a manager for new business, vehicle and asset finance in Uganda's Stanbic Bank would want to promote the hire option to help farmers back home save on bad loans. He plans to work on re-structuring future agriculture leases and finance based on agriculture seasons and not monthly basis.

Sam Rubagumya, who is a managing director, with an agro-industrial house in Rwanda would seek to promote the Fazilka model that provides agricultural mechanisation services to small holding farmers growing maize and soybeans. The rental services for farm machinery, equipment and tools along with technical advice, service, maintenance and procurement of spare parts would improve farm profitability through higher yields.

Beautiful Fazilka

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About Fazilka...

160 year old historical town Fazilka of District Ferozepur, also known as Bangla, is located in southwestern Punjab (INDIA), about 325 kms west of Punjab State Capital Chandigarh, 85 km south-west of the district headquarters, Ferozepur and 200 km south of Amritsar. Fazilka is on India -Pakistan border and is 11 km off the international border with Pakistan. It is situated on the rice growing and cotton rich belt of the state and is one of the major rice exporting centers in India. Before partition, the town was the biggest wool market in undivided Punjab.

Fazilka’s origin dates back to AD 1844. It was established by Mr. Oliver and was christened after the original owner of the land, Mian Fazil Watoo. The first railway line through the town was setup in AD 1898 on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the accession of Queen Victoria. Being at the border, Fazilka also had to bear the brunt of the two Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971.

The famous ‘Tosha’ sweets have its origin in Fazilka. The first single cylinder steam ship in the world, Fazilka, was named after this town. Fazilka is also home to the second biggest TV tower in Asia, which stands at 305 m above the ground.
Amritsar International Airport and Ludhiana Domestic Airport serves Fazilka. Fazilka Railway Station is located on Abhor- Ferozepur Region of Northern Railways. National Highway 10 passes through Fazilka.

Geography & Demography of the City:

As of 2001 India census,Fazilka had a population of 67,424. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Fazilka has an average literacy rate of 68%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 72%, and female literacy is 62%. In Fazilka, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age